


A Lesson in Endurance

by jottingprosaist (jane_potter), Thanatopsiturvy



Series: The 36 Lessons of Teldryn Sero: Nerevarine [4]
Category: Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind
Genre: Deepthroating, Face-Fucking, Jiub Has a Big Dick, M/M, Nerevarine!Teldryn, Prison fucks people up emotionally, Teldryn can't let himself want tenderness or emotional intimacy, Touch-Starved, but by god a good hard dicking is allowed, gagging
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-21
Updated: 2020-06-21
Packaged: 2021-03-04 00:56:05
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,759
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24834964
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jane_potter/pseuds/jottingprosaist, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thanatopsiturvy/pseuds/Thanatopsiturvy
Summary: Teldryn Sero has been unceremoniously yanked from prison in the Imperial City, driven miles in a carriage, and now locked up on a boat bound for... who knows where. His fellow prisoner says it's Morrowind.Said prisoner is a worthy distraction from Teldryn's anxiety about the unknown yet to come.
Relationships: Jiub/Nerevarine, Jiub/Teldryn Sero
Series: The 36 Lessons of Teldryn Sero: Nerevarine [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1741183
Comments: 12
Kudos: 44





	A Lesson in Endurance

Teldryn Sero was in a locked room.

It was a different locked room than the one he’d been in for the past six years.

This morning it had been a carriage, stuffed in for a long, rough, silent trip from the Imperial City’s prison. None of his guards had spoken. Teldryn, though vibrating with tension at the blindingly sudden and inexplicable change, had barely managed to remember the first and possibly only lesson that prison had taught him: don’t wreck a guard’s good mood.

In prison, good was relative. If this was a good situation, he didn’t know. It was new. It was… _something_.

Almost without word to the ship’s captain, let alone to Teldryn, they had bundled him onto a ship. Between carriage and cargo hold he had glimpsed his surroundings and been startled to see mostly Dunmer faces. Like his. For the first time in— how long?

And now, the room. A cramped cell in the ship’s hold, hastily half-cleared of crates that had left a spill of saltrice on the boards, the greasy scent of scuttle in the air. One of the sailors on deck had been smoking a pipe of hackle-lo and Teldryn’s heart had yanked him through a wall of memories that he hadn’t scratched in years.

(Morrowind. Morrowind. _Morrowind_?)

Another prisoner stared back at him: Dunmer. Older. Rougher, grim-faced, with muscle strapped hard over sharp bones and a vicious scar that had barely spared his right eye. _Don’t fight this one_ , Teldryn’s instincts said. Not without a shiv. Another lesson prison had taught him.

Teldryn’s eyes darted around the room. Crates, barrels, baskets, sacks. A candle lantern hanging overhead. Even a coil of heavy rope on the floor. It was too much: too many things a prisoner could grab and use.

“What’s going on?” he asked, because he had never, ever, learned to hold his tongue.

“I’m not sure,” the other rasped. “But they’re taking us to Morrowind. I think they might be letting us go.”

Heavily, Teldryn sat down. The boat’s roll beneath his feet had little to do with it.

The other prisoner sat too. In silence they listened to the sounds of a crew overhead moving cargo, hoisting sails, weighing anchor. There was the sudden surge of free movement on the water.

New. Different. _Something_.

 _Letting us go,_ bounced back and forth inside Teldryn’s skull, unable to escape and impossible to ignore. Without realizing it, he dug his fingernails into the Cyrodilic numbers tattooed on the back of his right wrist. When he noticed what he was doing— what he’d done for years— he could only make himself wrap his fingers over the tattoo and grip tightly.

No fretting. No weakness.

But something was happening.

“What makes you think they’re letting us go?” he demanded, when he couldn’t take it any longer.

The other prisoner glanced at him in surprise. “My time was about up. Isn’t yours?”

Teldryn laughed harshly. “Not even close. Twenty-five years.”

“Huh. What for?”

“Bar brawl. Lot of shit got broken. Someone died, not that I had anything to do with it.”

“Twenty-five years for that?”

“I insulted the magistrate when he gave me ten. Fucking Imperial.”

The other laughed too. Teldryn bared his teeth in not-quite-a-smile: the one that said _it was fucking dumb, yeah,_ at the same time as, _and I don’t apologize for anything_.

“You?”

“Fifty for murder. I didn't do it— but I’d meant to. Spent some time in Vivec. Then they sent me to the City for a work gang. Quarrying stone.”

Teldryn kissed his teeth. “Rough.”

“Not rougher than the skooma. I would have ended up in prison eventually. Or dead. At least I couldn’t get it on the inside.”

Teldryn glanced up in brief surprise. Acceptance was a rare thing in prison, gratitude even rarer.

They were free, were they? Maybe. (Or maybe he was going to a prison on Vvardenfell. Maybe he’d get hard labour on a muck plantation.)

“I’m Teldryn,” he made himself say, since that was what people did. Since it felt like they were being people. “Teldryn Sero.”

“Jiub. Of nowhere and no one.”

Distantly, a bell rang. The boat began rolling more sharply, and then a jolt shivered through the boat’s spine and the pit of Teldryn’s stomach registered movement. The sails had caught wind.

“Out of the harbour,” Jiub said.

Teldryn’s stomach clenched. They were going faster. To somewhere.

Jiub made himself comfortable against a massive coil of rope, rearranging the coil to suit himself. He even tossed Teldryn some empty sacks from his side of the room, which Teldryn bundled into a pillow. Because Jiub was sitting quietly, with the obdurate stillness of a stone enduring blank years, Teldryn made himself lie down. But he couldn’t stop his mind from racing.

He’d never learned how to turn his brain off. Labour had tired him enough to sleep hard, and ennui had turned the four walls of his cell into a grey haze that ate the days. But when he thought about what was really happening— that time was passing while he did _nothing_ — this feeling rose up like a crazed nix-hound: madness, clawing and frantic, driving him to chew at his own leg even though there was no trap to escape.

In the flickering lantern-light, the room’s walls seemed to move. The rocking floor made him queasy. Even the sensation of the boat traveling while he remained stuck in place was maddening. He scratched at a snag in his ratty canvas trousers until it started to tear.

He wanted to pace. Search the crates. Find a weapon. Escape the ship. Burn it down. Test the fucking lock on this weak-ass door. But he couldn’t. Didn’t. Because what if he was free? What if he was _this close_ and then he blew it?

He wanted out. He wanted all the things he wasn’t allowed to have. Divines and Daedra and any spirit with pity, Teldryn was willing to beg: he wanted _out_.

“Hey,” he said roughly, shoving himself to sit up. He was breathing too hard. “I’ll suck your dick if you suck mine.”

Jiub’s earrings clicked from how fast his head turned. But otherwise he held very still, tight and controlled. His eyes flicked up and down.

Teldryn would have sucked him off even if it wasn’t reciprocal. That was a dangerous precedent to set in prison; he’d gotten into fights to avoid it. But right now he needed something, anything, and touch was another luxury he wasn’t allowed.

The scar on Jiub’s face stretched when he smiled. As he got to his feet, smooth and deliberate, Teldryn leaned back on his elbows, stretching out farther on the wooden deck. His heart was hammering.

Turning his back on Teldryn, Jiub went over to the keg of fresh water sitting on a stack of crates. The spigot creaked and a spatter of water hit the deck. Blank, Teldryn stared at the mer’s muscular back.

Jiub turned around with the rope of his trousers undone and his thick, soft cock dangling out, held in one hand like a confident display. He shook the last droplets of water off it. A smile hid in the crook of one side of his mouth.

Teldryn had opened his mouth without realizing it. He made himself turn it into a smirk: hungry, triumphant that he’d gotten what he wanted.

“Come on,” he said, leaning back farther to invite Jiub down to him. Onto him.

Loosening his trousers farther, Jiub stood over Teldryn for a moment. He was larger than Teldryn, heavier, with the gaunt muscularity that decades of hard labour and poor prison food would give a mer. But there was a kinship in his eyes that made Teldryn willing to risk vulnerability in exchange for touch.

“Like this?” Jiub stepped over him, feet on either side of Teldryn’s chest. He still held his cock loosely, thumb rubbing the head. A drop of water fell just past Teldryn’s cheek.

“C’mon,” Teldryn urged, feeling desperate and reckless enough to not fully hide that desperation. “Get down here. You want it or not?”

Jiub’s chuckle was all grit but no unkindness. He went to his knees straddling Teldryn’s chest, not quite putting all his weight on top. ( _Considerate!_ There had been worse hasty prison fucks, Teldryn among them.) Even so, Teldryn’s chest gripped as if the breath had been driven from him.

Warmth. Skin. A living thing that wasn’t _him_.

Teldryn put his hands to Jiub’s bony hips and gripped tight. He smiled sharp and hot.

Humming, Jiub put a hand on the back of Teldryn’s skull, hard fingertips sliding through his hair and pushing it back from his face. It was as if a wave of electricity ran through Teldryn’s whole body. He stiffened, barely fighting the urge to push against Jiub’s hand, beg for more.

There was no sweet talk, no negotiation, no special requests. You got what you got. But for once Teldryn had no complaints. His mouth was watering. He leaned forward at the same time as Jiub moved his hips, feeding his soft cock into Teldryn’s open mouth.

Moaning involuntarily through his nose, Teldryn took it to the base in one go. It was soft and warm and heavy, stuffed to the back of his throat, filling his mouth and his senses. He shut his eyes, relishing the overwhelming warmth, the distraction. With his jaw open wide, he worked his tongue and lips around Jiub’s soft cock, swallowed over and over, urging it to hardness. There was a messy sucking noise as his lips didn’t quite seal.

Jiub groaned above him. His fingertips dug into Teldryn’s scalp. Teldryn sucked harder, pressing in so close that his nose pushed into Jiub’s flat stomach, half-blocking his air. He didn’t care. He wanted more.

At last, Jiub’s stiffening cock prodded his throat so hard that Teldryn gagged and had to draw back for breath. A string of saliva broke messily on his chin. He blinked, sniffed, looked up at Jiub. Jiub's ravaged face was in shadow thanks to the lantern swinging overhead but Teldryn could see how he had been vivified, made hungry and alive. The mer held Teldryn’s head in one hand and his cock in the other, now mostly erect and growing harder with a twitch even as Teldryn watched.

“That’s good,” Jiub said hoarsely, resting the head of his cock against Teldryn’s lips. A presence, not a demand. Just like his hand cupping Teldryn’s head. “Very good.”

Teldryn felt shivery and hot all over. A voice in the back of his head said _go fast go hard you don’t have time_ — but that wasn’t true, was it? A prison guard wasn’t going to open the door and discover them rubbing off hastily in a storage room. The crew had been swallowed up in the creak of timber and amplified slap of waves against the hull. They could fuck how they liked; they were _free_ (practically, almost, maybe).

Teldryn allowed himself to take the head of Jiub’s cock in his mouth and suck gently, nicely, relishing the delicacy of foreskin and head. He sucked the sensitive folds of Jiub’s foreskin, then slid his tongue in and lapped at the slit until Jiub’s cock grew hard enough that the foreskin drew back. It was hot and reckless and far too intimate to look up and hold Jiub’s stare while he did it. It invited too much connection. Teldryn did it anyway.

Jiub held his stare, harsh-faced and burning-eyed, until Teldryn couldn’t take it any longer. He shut his eyes and put one hand over Jiub’s on the back of his head, urging Jiub to push him down farther.

Even given permission to use Teldryn’s mouth, Jiub didn’t fuck ruthlessly, taking every inch of leeway: he held back, fed it to Teldryn in steady, controlled thrusts, pushed Teldryn down to meet every thrust but no further. Teldryn choked every time Jiub’s cockhead hit his throat, knew it wasn’t a clean professional job, but Jiub didn’t seem to care. He just held his mouth open and Jiub used him so, so good. 

Now fully erect, Jiub’s cock was too big to fit into his mouth and thick enough that Teldryn’s jaw strained with the effort of keeping his teeth clear. He didn’t mind struggling with it. He couldn’t think of anything else while he was focusing on this. Jiub’s cock was _nice_.

Jiub was too. “That’s right,” he rasped, gratitude clear in his voice. “That’s good. Like that…”

Teldryn sucked back a string of drool that was trying to creep down his chin. Unbelievably, he was starting to want this for Jiub’s sake as much as his own. He moaned and Jiub’s fingers tightened in his hair. He met Jiub’s his thrusts urgently, fucking his own face despite how he choked.

At last, however, he could no longer take the pain that lanced up his neck. Grimacing, Teldryn tried to pull back. Jiub’s hand let him retreat. The mer looked vaguely concerned, rather than intent on immediately shoving his cock back in Teldryn’s mouth despite the way it twitched against his chin, the way his muscular chest rose and fell rapidly.

Teldryn put a hand to the back of his own neck and rubbed the sore muscles. He wanted to keep going, but…

“All right?” Jiub rasped.

Teldryn scooted on his elbows back toward the boat’s hull. Jiub lifted his weight enough to let Teldryn go. With relief, Teldryn rested his shoulders and head against the boat’s curved hull. It was all the support he needed to hold his head in position. And get his face fucked properly.

There was drool on his chin and he was letting himself get wrecked and he didn’t care. “Fine,” Teldryn said, grabbing Jiub’s trousers to pull him closer again. “Get up here.”

Breathing hard, Jiub didn’t need to be told twice. He got his knees right up into Teldryn’s armpits and took Teldryn’s head with both hands— the first trace of frustrated need he’d shown— and shoved his cock into Teldryn’s waiting mouth just barely too hard. _Perfect_.

Eyes shut, mouth open, all Teldryn could do was take it. He could try to help, move his tongue, hollow his cheeks and suck hard enough that his sloppy noises filled the room, but the work was on Jiub. He took what he needed. Teldryn got the rest.

Teldryn got the hard weight of cock in his mouth, slippery-smooth on his tongue, drowning his senses. He breathed in rapid snatches between strokes, getting barely just enough; he had to control the panicky instinct in the back of his head that said _wait, please, stop!_ in favour of the voice that knew he could fucking _take this_. The harder he took it, the better it was for Jiub, and the more he would touch Teldryn: heavy, sweaty, hot. Jiub's hands gripped Teldryn’s skull, pinning his crazy in in _in_ and under control; his calves squeezed the sides of Teldryn’s chest, and his stomach pushed on his nose, smothering, reducing the world to Jiub and cock.

Jiub hit his throat the wrong way and Teldryn gagged harder than usual, hard enough that he had to struggle for a moment to control himself. He coughed and a string of spit slid down his chin— but fuck it, he was filthy already. Then he realized Jiub’s strokes had gone shallow, gentle, barely half his cock babying Teldryn’s mouth as he gasped for breath around it.

Teldryn opened his eyes and glared even as he felt an involuntary tear trickle down one temple. He grabbed Jiub’s hips and pulled him forward, urged him in harder, faster, rougher: _do it, do it— fuck you, fuck **me**_.

Jiub narrowed his eyes and deliberately pushed deep, almost all the way in, pressing hard against Teldryn’s throat. Teldryn gagged a little but kept the pressure on, holding Jiub’s hips close. Unable to resist, he slid one hand farther back to get a grip on Jiub’s muscular ass. That was a risk, possibly a danger— there should be no touching that might cross a line— but Teldryn felt both reckless and safe. It was bizarre.

“B'vehk,” Jiub muttered, tilting his head back. He thrust again, just as hard. Teldryn squeezed his encouragement.

With a stifled groan, Jiub finally started to cut loose.

“That’s it,” Jiub rasped, over the wet, sloppy noise as he picked up the pace quicker and rougher than before. One thumb rubbed Teldryn’s temple, a little encouraging stroke even as he made Teldryn gasp and gag around his cock. He could fuck as rough as anyone now that he was willing to ignore Teldryn’s struggles. As long as Teldryn kept squeezing and urging him closer, Jiub didn’t let up. With a cock that size, it wasn’t even hard to make him gag. Teldryn was thoroughly, disjointedly glad.

He was drooling, leaking tears probably; it didn’t matter as long as Jiub ignored it. He ran his hands up from Jiub’s hips, mapped the flexing sinew of his lower back, stroked as much skin as he could reach. He felt like he was drowning, and like it wasn’t enough. When Teldryn’s desperation got too much and he dug his nails in, tilted his chin up and tried to fight through his rattled focus to take _more_ , Jiub adjusted his head just right and _gave_ it to him. He shoved deep, held it, held Teldryn’s face in place when he struggled despite himself, and kept pushing and pushing until Teldryn had stopped gagging and managed to take the massive head of Jiub’s cock in his throat, just _barely_ , a painful stretch that made him tear up.

Jiub pulled out and Teldryn gasped in gratitude. “Up,” Jiub urged, raking Teldryn’s long hair back from his face, evidently just barely resisting the urge to pull it. “Up higher, up on your knees. That’s it.”

Panting and shaky, Teldryn obeyed. He had the vague sense that he should snark back but his brain wasn’t ordering the words. He didn’t want to distance or derail, anyway. He was already in too far, too close, too vulnerable; enthusiastic cooperation now couldn’t get him in more trouble.

On his knees without the hull to support him, Teldryn was more grateful than ever for Jiub’s hands on his head. He was brought to the right height and held there, gasping. With his eyes shut, he missed Jiub’s cock until it nudged his lips. Clumsily, Teldryn got it into his mouth and sucked until Jiub started to fuck him again.

“You can take it,” Jiub rasped, thrusting slow and deep. He held in place until Teldryn’s involuntary half-choke relaxed, then withdrew and did it again. “Just relax.”

Oh, gods, he wanted in. All the way. He was going to wreck Teldryn. Teldryn wanted him to.

Jiub pushed— pushed— and it went _down_ —

 _“—uhn_. There you go.”

A moment later Teldryn had to choke it up, saliva dripping on his chin, but that was fine: Jiub had him try again. Deeper. His throat squelched nastily. Jiub groaned.

Light-headed and dizzy, Teldryn held onto Jiub’s hips for dear life. Every breath was a struggle, but each time Jiub’s cock popped into his throat, it was a victory. He had to take it; that was all he had to do. It hurt, stretched his throat, even scared him a little— in that stupid instinctual part of his brain that he hadn’t yet beat the fear out of— but damned if he wasn’t going to make his body do what he _wanted_. And Jiub was helping him. Jiub was making him—

Jiub’s cock squeezed into his throat, thick and hard, slid down and down and down, and Teldryn’s nose pressed against his groin.

“ _B’vehk_ ,” Jiub groaned. “ _Yes_. That’s it.”

And when Teldryn finally buckled and pulled off, gasping, Jiub thumbed the tear off Teldryn’s temple and kept praising, “That’s it, yes, that’s good. That’s right.” His big callused hands felt like they were holding the world steady— steady enough that Teldryn had no problem complying, going down again, even though he had barely gotten a breath.

Part of him kept expecting Jiub to insult his cooperation. His skill at cocksucking. When had Teldryn started assuming nobody would be decent?

“There— there— n’chow, again—”

Jiub’s hands on his skull were starting to get restless, pulling at Teldryn’s hair a little too hard. His thrusts came faster, rabbity and sharp, almost punishing. For the first time it felt like he was actually disregarding Teldryn. But that was it, yes, fuck, thank Azura’s starry tits: the urgency of Jiub’s panting was what Teldryn had been growing desperate for. He was close; it was almost over.

Gods, Jiub's cock was big. It strained his throat, punished him every time he took it down. It hurt. But Teldryn wanted to take it, he did— wanted to get Jiub off—

Jiub’s fist clenched in his hair, suddenly indomitable. He buried his cock in Teldryn’s throat and _stayed_ , holding Teldryn’s head down, groaning loudly. Immediately Teldryn wanted air, wanted freedom, wanted that thick bulging cock _out_ , but he knew what was more important. He fought his gag reflex, not letting himself pull back even as he gagged around it— even when it got _harder_ , started throbbing, and Jiub cursed in relief.

Eyes clenched, Teldryn fought for every shred of self-control it took to hold himself down on Jiub’s cock and swallow, _swallow_ , doing the best he could to work Jiub through orgasm until his cock had finished pulsing directly down Teldryn’s throat.

Jiub’s hands relaxed, stroked shakily through his hair. Slow, straining, Teldryn drew himself off and didn’t let himself gag when it came out of his throat. It was all he could do to keep his lips tight, sucking up the last mouthful of spit and swallowing it down. He inhaled slow and hard through his nose.

“Holy Vehk and all the saints,” Jiub rasped, reverent in a way nobody was. Nobody was allowed to be. “There you go. There. Wonderful.”

Teldryn opened his eyes and felt the full filthy reality of his drool-sticky chin and sore, swollen lips. Suddenly he didn’t want to be on his knees in front of Jiub, let alone look up at him; gods knew what vulnerability Jiub would see in his face.

Fuck, he’d _let_ that happen. He’d asked for...

He pushed himself away and sprawled back against the boat’s hull, roughly wiped a forearm over his mouth and smirked. His mouth felt obscene.

“Saints? I’ll take it,” Teldryn said, and was jolted that his voice came out almost as gravelly as Jiub’s. “You gonna repay it just as well?”

Jiub seemed unstung, even amused. It was probably hard to be baited after how incredibly well Teldryn had sucked his dick. He arranged that thick, softening cock back in his trousers and tied them shut, and then his knees thumped to the deck.

In the shadow of his muscle, Teldryn realized again how much heavier Jiub was than him. How much older, and how inexplicably gnarled from fifty years in prison compared to Teldryn’s measly six. His scar gave his smile a dangerous, crooked edge even as he undid the cord of Teldryn’s ragged trousers.

Jiub lifted his cock free, and Teldryn was surprised to find himself half hard. He hadn’t been thinking about himself at all. The expected jibe did not come. Instead, Jiub lay all the way down on his front, arranging himself on his elbows between Teldryn’s thighs. He spread a hand across Teldryn’s belly— secure, steadying, or like maybe he was enjoying the flex of Teldryn’s lean abs— and leaned down to take Teldryn’s cock in his mouth.

A shock went through Teldryn: raw burning heat as much as pleasure. Jiub’s calluses scraped his stomach pleasantly; his forearm lay like a brand on Teldryn’s hip. Teldryn couldn’t help drawing his feet in, pressing them to Jiub’s ribs for the sheer revelation of more skin to skin contact.

Jiub inhaled and sighed through his nose, suckling steadily on the head of Teldryn’s cock. Teldryn hardened so fast that he felt the rush of blood, a flush of embarrassment and visceral need. He covered it with a crude grunt.

Feeling queerly unsteady, Teldryn let his head fall back. The boat rolled beneath them, but that didn’t account for the way his brain couldn’t hold onto stability.

Jiub did something with his tongue, sweet and intense. Teldryn muffled a moan and pressed his heels tighter to Jiub’s sides. Unable to help himself, he put a hand to Jiub’s sweaty shaven scalp. There was nothing to pull, but he didn’t want that; he just wanted to touch. Touch more. He glanced down and accidentally found Jiub looking up, red eyes intense, so he shut his eyes again, doing his best to feel and not shake.

It was good. It was so good. All pleasure, almost gentle, and no rush to frot harder or get it over with. He didn’t even have to fuck. He could just lay back and let Jiub suck him off, steady and quiet, allowing Teldryn to rest his palm on his head and feel like he was part of it.

Jiub did nothing fancy, nothing near as desperate and rough as Teldryn had, but his mouth and hand worked steadily, efficiently, though the occasional grunt and slurp of spit. Teldryn didn’t care about any of the details, just the touch. And gods, isolation made it so easy to fall apart.

“Fuck,” he whispered, eyes flicking behind his clenched lids as he searched for the thread of orgasm drawing tight in his belly. “Fuck, fuck... _fuck_ …”

It took longer than he was comfortable with, and no time at all. Jiub made no complaint, gave no sign of tiredness, just pinned Teldryn’s hips to the deck and sucked until his toes curled, his back arched, until he was clenching one fist so hard it hurt and trying not to shove Jiub’s head down with the other. Finally, gasping out ragged messy noises that he didn’t want to hear but couldn’t control, Teldryn came hard. His thighs squeezed the broad muscularity of Jiub’s shoulders, straining to contain _something_ if not himself until the overwhelming intensity of orgasm passed.

Jiub took it all, letting Teldryn fill his mouth with jolt after jolt of seed until he was done, which was its own sharp note of erotic in the fading wave of pleasure. His throat worked; his roughly shaven chin scraped Teldryn’s thigh. He came off slowly, sucking Teldryn’s cock dry to the exquisitely sensitive tip.

Exhausted, Teldryn lay slack against the hull. If not for the curve of the hull, he’d have been flat on his back; as it was, he barely managed a slouch. Slow, uncoordinated, he put his cock in his trousers and knotted the cord.

Jiub sat up cross-legged, absently wiping a thumb under his lip. He had a lazy satisfaction about him, something that mostly appeared as a softening of his stoic exterior. His eyes settled on Teldryn.

“Not bad,” Teldryn said carelessly, and instantly regretted it. Deflect, diminish, detach— standard procedure. But it felt wrong right now. He coughed. “I mean… yeah. Thanks.”

“Been a long time,” Jiub rasped, sounding reflective. “Especially since I did it for… a better reason.”

Teldryn didn’t know what to say. Jiub didn’t appear to need a response, though: with the quiet in-folding of someone who knew how to pass decades untouched by the outside world, he re-settled himself on the other side of the small room, against his coil of rope.

The boat rocked. Water sloshed against the hull. The lantern-candle swayed.

“You think they’re letting us go?” Teldryn asked again, because even though he was exhausted, it was all he could think.

“Yes,” Jiub said. “They must be. I’m sure.”

Teldryn wished he could be so sure. Or so able to endure.

He pushed his hair back from his sweaty face, grimacing at the way it stuck. The length was the product of neglect, for years unmanaged except for having his braid occasionally hacked off with a shiv. Maybe he’d shave it. The sides at least.

He lay still, though, finally able to quiet his restless body. If he focused on the memory of Jiub’s heat, his touch lingering in Teldryn’s raw throat and flushed skin, he could drift. Let go.

That night, Teldryn dreamed for the first time in years. A storm tore through, harsh and unexpected.

At dawn, he woke in Morrowind.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to [roboticadraws](https://www.instagram.com/roboticadraws/) for the [picture of Jiub](https://www.instagram.com/p/CBpE7WAl9fs/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link) that started it all. And thank you to thanatopsiturvy for being the conductor of the [Nerevarine!Teldryn Sero train](https://archiveofourown.org/series/1741183)!


End file.
